transcript

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Speaker 4:
[00:54] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Right Time, a Wave original. My name is Bomani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is that time of week where we have a guest join us, coming to us live from San Antonio. You know the next line? It's just like Compton. Bruce Bowen, what's going on?

Speaker 5:
[01:23] All is well. What's going on with you, Bomani?

Speaker 4:
[01:26] Hey, man, I feel like we do it a little better over here than you folks are doing in San Antonio right now. Y'all are a little nervous after. Look, I was just telling Ryan before the show. There's only two ways for that dude to get a concussion in an NBA game, and that's to hit his head on the basket or what happened right there. Otherwise, how does he ever get hit in the head? He wound up hitting chin first, Victor Wembanyama, chin first on the floor and was night night.

Speaker 5:
[01:57] It was obviously a scary situation because he didn't have his hands to brace his fall. By the time he was already head and downward, it was face first. And these are some of the situations that take place in a game that people don't realize, like just in a pulling of the chair, losing your balance. It's a variety of things that can happen. We were just happy that, okay, that was the least of it. I remember the last time I saw someone hit their chin. Well, it was more or less their mouth. And all you saw was a spray of chiclets. Yeah. And that's what I was hoping. I didn't see him doing like, oh, there's my tooth over there. There's another particle over there.

Speaker 4:
[02:41] Yeah, like that is the part that I had not thought about because you're right, I don't know exactly who that was, but I remember exactly what you're talking about. That face goes in the ground and then it's just teeth. And you gotta go get them. You can't just leave them out there. There's still a chance to save them.

Speaker 5:
[02:57] Right, right. The one I'm talking about, it happened to be Doc Rivers. And so when that happened, it's already scary anytime you just, that sound, only people understand that have either hit the back of your head on someone and like, you're really like, whoa, whoa, what just happened here? And then to see them, this is where I think not having a lot of experience going into the playoffs, how a certain scenario can happen where you're like, hey, this is why you respect your team. I'm not saying that the Spurs didn't respect Portland, but this is why you have to talk about things in a way where nothing is guaranteed. The playoffs are a different animal, and we see so many different things to transpire during the course of that. This was one of those situations that if the Spurs aren't playing with Victor, it's only because of something tragic happening. Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[03:58] Concussions in sports outside of football and hockey to me are interesting because those are not great risk of head injury sports. So we don't think about concussions in the same way. But in the NFL, we see those dudes come back after a week in the NFL. Sometimes it might be too. But I think about a guy like Justin Moore, no, in baseball, and you see this in other spaces. People are typically way more judicious outside of football about bringing people back from concussions because a concussion. You know what a concussion is like in the NFL? It's like a snow day. If you live in Iowa, we can't be taking off for so much time behind these snow days, man. We never get anything done. You know what I'm saying? We just can't be shutting it down every time. It's a snowflake.

Speaker 5:
[04:44] To your point, Bomani, yes, football, every play is some type of head collision. The helmets hit one another. It's part of their norm. It's just when it goes to another level that was like, hey, we have to dial back. But, excuse me, in basketball and baseball, all these different sports where you don't have the collisions quite like that, that's where it becomes a little more, as you say, judicial in how we handle these things. Right.

Speaker 4:
[05:14] And that's where I've kind of toured because on one level it's like, hey, let's just be careful, dah, dah, dah. On the other, ain't nobody hitting that big head, man. Like, his head is the safest head in the history of professional sports when it comes to being at risk of somebody hitting him. Ain't nobody clearing no elbow through and hitting him. None of the like, that is like...

Speaker 5:
[05:36] It's intentional if he get an elbow in the head.

Speaker 4:
[05:39] It requires somebody to like, you remember that time that Chris Paul tried to knock the ball out of Deandre Jordan's head?

Speaker 5:
[05:46] You know, okay, I was going to Isaiah Thomas with Rick Mahorn.

Speaker 4:
[05:51] Yes.

Speaker 5:
[05:53] And Isaiah, you know, he's... And Rick is like, stop it, man.

Speaker 4:
[05:58] Rick said he had pillow heads.

Speaker 5:
[06:00] Like...

Speaker 4:
[06:03] But it's like, if you're like a kid, it's like, hey, give me, give me, give me, give me. That's what it's gonna take for you to hit that dude in the head. The other part of it is though, he is the franchise in a way that nobody is the franchise.

Speaker 5:
[06:17] So... This is where players don't always like how they're handled. I remember a time when Manu, Manu did something and Pop was like, that's it? Nope, you're done. And no, Manu is a competitor. Same, Victor is a competitor. But because of your value and you never want a player to ever feel like, you all don't value me. You guys put me out there too soon. We've heard many stories like that. With this situation and what he's able to do for the organization, yes, it's about his health first and foremost. Now, I'm sure after a couple of days, Victor is going to be like, all right, let's go. I'm ready. And they're like, hold on. We need to make sure you are okay because it's not just for right now. We're talking about future.

Speaker 4:
[07:16] Yeah. Let me tell you, I had this observation about him. They gave him the defensive player of the year trophy before the game on Tuesday, right? You played with, for my money, the best defensive player of that era of Tim Duncan, right? The best team, I don't know if anybody ever affected team defense quite like Tim Duncan did. From the second he showed up in the league to the second that he left. Tim Duncan never won defensive player of the year. I have no idea when anybody else is going to win defensive player of the year with Victor out there just because nobody's going to, nobody defense go look like that ever. Did you see the shot chart from like what happened after he left while he was in the game?

Speaker 5:
[07:58] They lived in the paint. They lived, hey, hey, hey, guess what y'all? He gone, let's go. That's what it was the equivalence of. You know, you just made a statement talking about Tim never getting the defensive player of the year. I didn't like how at one point it was just given to a guy who rebounded the basketball. When I believe Marcus Camby got it one year. Yeah. Are you kidding me? Now, people don't say, oh, he throwing shade at Marcus Camby. No, because I look at defense not as a rebounding deal. I look at you limiting someone that's really good at a position. And there was no, I didn't look at Marcus Camby at that time as a stopper. It was a time when Ben Wallace was getting them. But you could validate that with what he was doing. He guarded shag by himself a couple of times during that series in 04. Right. So he's playing defense. He's blocking shots. We talk about Victor and what he's able to do. Bomani, he can stand in the paint and get a good contested three point. Somebody shooting the three point, he can contest it from the closing out from the paint. We've never seen something like that. When he extends his arms, it reminds me of that running reb team with that Amoeba defense. They were so long. Stacey Augman's arm is long, Ackles long, Butler long. So when we start talking about how someone impacts a game, it's not just the fact that he's blocking shots. It's the fact that every time you get in the paint, you don't know where he's coming from. And it's almost like, it's like, okay, go, go gadget arm. And he's, he's still, they try to get into his body. It's hilarious because now he understands like, huh, when they try to feel where I am, they have a better opportunity and maybe scoring. But when they can't get into my body, they don't know where I am. And that's what you see him doing a lot when it comes to ball going in the paint. He's just there, he creates so much havoc on the defensive side. It will be hard to not necessarily say, all right, who's going to get second this year in defensive player of the year votes? Who's going to get second?

Speaker 4:
[10:41] I don't see, I don't see any way anybody can be more impactful because he's also out here sliding his feet with dudes on the perimeter.

Speaker 1:
[10:47] Like, what are we supposed to do?

Speaker 5:
[10:49] I saw him sliding them puppies one time and I was in my house, like, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, get him. It's such a pleasure to see because when it comes to the technique of it, he stayed in the defensive stance. He never allowed his feet to come together. He didn't open his hips and give way to the basket. All these little nerdy thoughts I have when it comes to those types of moments, that's what I can recognize on the fly and just marvel at it because of his size.

Speaker 4:
[11:24] Yeah. Now, I also think this, I think even without him, they still win this series. They had that game in the fourth quarter and then just gave it away as it went. Portland is not a bad team, but Portland is not a good team. I think San Antonio without Victor, that's the biggest change from the beginning of this season to now is that before this looked like a lottery team without him. Now they look like a team that wins this series.

Speaker 5:
[11:48] Yeah. I believe they were 12 and 6 without him this year. What do you get a chance to learn in this moment, Bomani, for a young group that some of your key contributors don't have that experience, they can only get the experience by having the experience and going through whatever it is. This was a game where Mitch will go back in that film and say, fellas, look at what we're doing. We're up 14 with six minutes to go. What transpires after that is where coaches love to break the game down as far as showing the players their flaws or how they didn't continue on with whatever the play was. Get to the end of the play. Now that you don't have Victor, it's no longer about a quick shot. Now it's about making sure you can attack from certain areas on the floor and stay disciplined to it. During the regular season, you can skip steps and sneak out with a win. During the playoffs, it's not about skipping those steps. It's about really focusing on the part of who are we going to attack right now and stay diligent in that part of the game and stay diligent to what you do. The biggest thing for me is that this younger group learned a valuable lesson of how important it is to stay locked in defensively. Because you got a lead and then all of a sudden you lost the lead and it wasn't about necessarily the shots. It's about them getting to the basket. Now we got to stay in front of folks. These are things that it's just so hard to do on the fly. They're accustomed to having Wemby. They're accustomed to that, he's good, we got help there. Now we need to guard the yard a little bit more, do a better job of the rotations and just understand that, even in the midst of things right now, it is a learning process and it's so important that they absorb all of this, which they are, but it's just even more important that you realize that playoffs are different from the standpoint that you don't pack it in, you fight till the end and if there's ever been a team that they can look at and say, wow, look how they kept fighting was last year's Indiana's team. The fact that every game they were down, they beat the Knicks coming back from a deficit of 20 plus points. So it's still about the fight.

Speaker 4:
[14:23] Let me tell you this, I can't wait to see game three and it's actually only minimally related to the Spurs because it's going to be weird vibes in Portland. Have you been reading these stories about their owner?

Speaker 5:
[14:35] No.

Speaker 4:
[14:36] Okay. So for people who do not know this, they were just bought by this dude named Tom Dundon. He is the owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, right? He's a billionaire from Texas. He is worth four and a quarter billion dollars. And John Canzano has already written the column asking whether this dude is trying to set it up to have the team leave Portland, right? And it's because he's doing things like this. You man's splitter, interim coach, right? This should be a feel good time for the Trail Blazers. Let us not forget their beloved head coach was indicted by the feds earlier this year, right? They picked it up. They made the playoffs. The word is out that their owner was to see if they can get a head coach for between one and two million dollars per season. And they are currently looking for other coaches while their season is still going on. Now, now, now, hold up, hold up. I got more for you, right? That's the vibes when you're just talking about what might be going on around the team, OK? I was told that with the Hurricanes, the hockey team and Raleigh, that he has been heard complaining about the five-star travel requirement and the collective bargaining agreement, for example. He is the guy that believes you can put a number on everything. And that putting a number on everything includes the number for the t-shirts in the arena. So in San Antonio, where they did the whole thing, where it looked like the old logo and the colors were going on around, brother, they ain't even given the people t-shirts. They are not giving the people t-shirts. And look, it's one thing in LA where they don't even want to wear the t-shirts. You know what I'm saying? Baby, this is Portland. Everybody go ahead and have t-shirts on. They could not put the money on the t-shirts.

Speaker 5:
[16:28] Wow. That's, you know, it's unfortunate because I think if there's anything you can be doing, especially right around this time right now, is really marketing how great of a job Tiago has done. Marketing how great of a group they have in Portland. You got Dane Lillard back. You got this vibe within the young culture there of guys doing their work and spending time in the gym and getting extra shots. On top of that, we just had come out on Netflix, the whole jailblazers thing. So why not really take this time to promote what the club is doing right now? Obviously, we don't know what's going on in his head, but it's just, it's a sad sight if the team is able to leave or if he gets rid of the team out of Portland, because we went through that in Seattle. And Seattle was a beautiful place to play. Just the atmosphere, I mean, they were champions years ago. They've been to the finals in Gary Payton's era. It is, don't start, I guess, it's not me, but it's like, don't start screwing up things that were implemented from a long time ago just to satisfy yourself. Think about others in the process.

Speaker 4:
[18:04] Daw, he just cheap. Like, it's just, it's flat out.

Speaker 5:
[18:07] One to two million. What is, what I like to know is what's the average yearly salary for NBA coaches, head coaches?

Speaker 4:
[18:15] I think it's now in the neighborhood. Like, I don't think you can get a coach, any coach now for less than six million dollars.

Speaker 6:
[18:22] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[18:24] Like, you can't get a college coach for two million dollars.

Speaker 5:
[18:29] And, yeah, it just sounds like to me, you need to have some people in your organization or some, some confidence that will help him understand that this isn't what, this isn't what you want to do.

Speaker 6:
[18:45] Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[18:45] Like, this is, I just, I look at the league on this because this man gets down like this with his hockey team also. Now, you can make the argument, and as Dundon does, that that team has been good since he got there and the results have improved, but this ain't the NHL. You know what I mean? Like, you can't, you, you, you can't play this game over here like this with the NBA. My guy, Joe Giglio made that point. He's like, unless you're going to draft a superstar, you're going to need to sign a superstar. You're going to need to do the things that make players want to play on your team, especially if you're Portland.

Speaker 5:
[19:17] Look, there was an attraction in Portland, other than Nike, Yes. was the owner's plane.

Speaker 4:
[19:26] Yes.

Speaker 5:
[19:27] And, and I remember my first year in the NBA was with Miami Heat and we had our own plane. I went to Boston the next year and I was like, well, where's our, where's our plane? They're like, oh, we have a, we have the team charter. And man, when I tell you my heart was hurt, the first flight I took and it had nothing to do with the amenities because it was, it was fantastic. It was just, they were a little more special on Miami's plane. That's all it was.

Speaker 4:
[20:04] Hey, man, you never know. How far did you feel for West Fresno when you started complaining about the play?

Speaker 5:
[20:10] Oh man, shoot. I wrote, I wrote that gray dog, bruh. So, hey, Bomani, let's not forget. I played in the CBA when you saw the pilots going out there on them little crop dusters testing the, I looked out the window and I see a guy doing this to the propeller. I'm like, mm, mm, okay. Well, I used to ride buses and now, now I'm, I'm on a pilot doing this to the propeller. Oh Lord, you got something in store for me. I don't know what it is, but I'm, I'm going to stay steadfast.

Speaker 4:
[20:45] No, no, no. I was just saying, because this happens to people. I'm sure there's somebody that's out here listening being like, oh, you complained about the private plane and you're like, yeah, but things change. As your life changes, things change.

Speaker 5:
[21:00] You know, I love the NBA. I love what it did for me. I love the places that I've gone because of the NBA. And, you know, there was a time, Bomani, where some teams didn't stay in Ritz-Carlton's in four seasons. They were still at them holidays. And there's nothing wrong with that. But I'm glad that everybody seemed to have received a memo about that you want to be able to order room service sometimes at 2 a.m. and it's not a sandwich.

Speaker 4:
[21:35] Hey, man, that's what they look. That's what LeBron was trying to tell people. Nobody wanted to hear it, though. LeBron, like that hotel in Memphis, is not up to his not be fitting of a man of my stature.

Speaker 5:
[21:47] Hey, boy, that is kind of tough in Memphis. It's kind of tough, baby. I remember one time that. So, to your point, like, when teams lay the towels out or the t-shirts. Well, in Memphis, one year when they were still playing at the pyramid, where the University of Memphis would play, they had these towels. And so they're like, come on, everybody, twirl those towels. Man, when I tell you, I don't know where they got those towels from, but all the little limp particles that were floating during that game, you just see somebody do this. Is it a mosquito? No, it's that it's from the towel. So it's all about the quality sometimes.

Speaker 4:
[22:35] Hey, let me give you a fun fact. Do you know what the pyramid is now in Memphis?

Speaker 5:
[22:40] No.

Speaker 4:
[22:40] They turned it into the world's largest Bass Pro Shops. I'm not lying. It's Bass Pro Shops.

Speaker 5:
[22:51] That's, yeah, I'm going to text you back on that one. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4:
[22:57] Right fast, though, before we get to this break, I want to ask you, Boston lost to Philadelphia by 14 points. To me, it just feels like this is what happens when you decide to shoot 53s and you're not making them that night. Am I missing it? I mean, Edgecombe was great, but that seemed to be the biggest part of it is this is just going to happen when you play ball like this.

Speaker 5:
[23:13] Well, part of it is, yes, we saw it last year. Remember, especially in the Knicks series, they went on one of those cold sprees. But the other side is that you still got to play defense. A couple of times, I saw Prichard isolated with Maxey or Edgecombe. You got to know, we got to rotate on that one. Those two, man, I tell you, I used to hate stopping on a dime because your feet move and your shoe, you're creating friction, the corns are starting to act up. When I see Tyrese Maxey and he get to the hole and he do that snatch dribble because he stopped like skrrt and I feel like others are like dogs hitting that corner and they be like they can't recover. So you got to understand when those two have the ball and they get in those ISO modes, you got to send somebody at least try to make it where you got Drummond shooting the ball or something. Because those two, they quick with that ball.

Speaker 4:
[24:24] I forgot Andre Drummond was in the NBA until I looked up and watched him play the other night. And that's crazy because he's like 32.

Speaker 5:
[24:32] Well, we just sometimes we need a program to get guys in better shape.

Speaker 4:
[24:42] Well, also, the game evolves on dudes. Like you remember Roy Hibbert went from being a great defensive player to being unplayable for the whole league in three years.

Speaker 5:
[24:54] And I think sometimes in those scenarios, Bomani, part of it is the communication. And what exactly can I do? Because I think there was a place for Roy before he was out of the league. There was a place for him. It's just a matter of how do you figure it out? Or for Roy's case, how do you continue to add to whatever skill sets you have? We saw Brook Lopez. Yeah. He got to Milwaukee. And next thing you know, he was no longer on the block. He worked on the shot. He could do other things as well as just shooting. He could clog the paint. He could rotate. He could switch out to guys. You have to reinvent yourself now. You really do. If you want to continue to play the game, it's not, no, what I do is I get on that block. They're like, no, that block's for Yannis. What are you going to do? OK, well, if he develops a touch shooting, now he forces a big outside of the paint. And now Yannis has the operating area of the paint and it works. But to his credit, he continued to evolve. He changed his game to become something different, something that can be utilized on a team, whether it's in the East or the West. Now Yannis with the Clippers, able to do stuff. Now, I don't know how old he is, but he's getting up in age. But it's been a long time since I seen him on the block like he was in Brooklyn.

Speaker 4:
[26:34] Brook Lopez just finished his 18th season in the NBA. And let me explain to you how long Brook Lopez has been in the NBA. First of all, you may not know this, but this is one of my favorite trivia factoids in the NBA. Brook Lopez is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Nets.

Speaker 5:
[26:54] Is there that long?

Speaker 4:
[26:55] No, he was there that long and he's been gone from there for nine years. Like that's how long Brook Lopez has been in the NBA. Long enough to become the all-time leading scorer in a franchise's history, and he's been gone for nine years.

Speaker 5:
[27:11] And how many years was he there?

Speaker 4:
[27:14] Nine.

Speaker 5:
[27:15] Okay. So you know where he's from, right?

Speaker 4:
[27:18] Fresno.

Speaker 5:
[27:19] Come on now. It's part of that water. That's that Central San Joaquin Valley water.

Speaker 4:
[27:27] Yeah. See, I got another thought on Brook Lopez that I will talk to you about also on Tex rather than on this show. But coming up next, go talk with Bruce about the Lakers Rockets series, because I got a feeling I know what he has to say about the Rockets. Find out, coming up next. You can predict the playoff action all the way to the finals with FanDuelPredicts. All you have to do is sign up to get you a $25 bonus. Follow all the playoff dishes, swishes, wishes, and misses. Every move is a potential plot twist. Predict the spread, the total points, and even the game-winning moments that make the playoffs, where one run, one rebound, one shot changes everything. From opening tip to the final buzzer, stay locked in with every pass, every play, and every moment that moves us closer to crowning a champion. Sign up now for your $25 bonus on FanDuel Predicts. Offered by FanDuel Predicts Markets LLC, a registered futures commission's merchant, 18 plus. Bonus is non-withdrawable and expires seven days after receipt. Trading derivatives involves significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools. Restrictions apply. See terms at fandual.com/predicts/bonusofferterms.

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Speaker 4:
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Speaker 5:
[31:20] The, you know, it goes back to the youth. I'm gonna say the youth again, Bomani. You look at where they were during that playoff series last year or year before last against Golden State. Was it year before last?

Speaker 4:
[31:41] I think it was the year before last.

Speaker 5:
[31:42] Okay, so you look at that time and you say, oh, they're on the cusp, they're on the cusp. And then, Fred goes down, Van Fleet. The importance of a floor general, you just can't make somebody a point guard. We talked about this at the beginning of the season when they played OKC. They played OKC and the last so many minutes, KD didn't even get a shot. A floor general recognizes when that boy, that can score in his sleep, they recognize that he needs a shot. Now, you try different pieces there. And what it just seems to boil down to is that this era of basketball where we're talking about, oh, he's a two-way guy. I'm sick of that term. This ain't football. A player should be able to play offense and defense. Maybe not as grand as others, but you should never be solely out there just for one aspect of it. So you have a big man that can score like it's nobody's business, but it's the other part of the game that you worry about. Where were the defensive rotations when LeBron drives by KD? I didn't see any. He 40 years old doing a reverse run.

Speaker 4:
[33:17] Yes. In a get in, not on a breakaway, in the half court.

Speaker 5:
[33:22] In the half court. This is where I say sometimes teams give in. They don't look like they're happy with one another. You can tell team camaraderie expressing in adverse situations. These situations sometimes it's like you think going back home, okay, now we're going home for two, we're going to get to. Now all it takes is game three for you not to come out the right way. And it's disappointing because what we've seen with Imei as a coach, I heard Perk talking about Imei got out coach. I have this thought process is that when players are not accountable and they're being held accountable, usually what they do is pout. The first thing they do is pout when they're held accountable. Instead of being coachable, being coachable is still listening to what a coach's constructive criticism is and going out and executing what it is that he has given you words of wisdom to do. But when you're not coachable, now your mind is somewhere else. Now you all of a sudden forgot to rotate. And when this guy has been in the NBA for 40 years, I mean, 20 something years, is driving to the lane. And I mean, not just one time, Bo. Bomani, it was multiple times. Finished with the left, one stretch dunk. It's like, come on, fellas, what's going on here? This is where I hate to say, when coaches no longer have an ear to the players, this is what they do. But others blame coaches. They're going to blame EMA who has been to the finals. And they're going to blame EMA who took, who had a team against a veteran team, Golden State, take them down to the wire. Like, it's not the coach. We need to start talking about the players and their ability to be held accountable.

Speaker 4:
[35:31] Now, I'm interested in hearing you say that. Now, you play with EMA in San Antonio, right? Like, what worried me about that in terms of coaching is, what EMA is going to give you no matter what your expectation when you hire him is, these dudes are going to play hard, right? Like, he's the accountability guy. That's what everybody loved about him in Boston. It's like, that idea. I have questions about, like, schematically, to be fair, the teams that we've seen him coach with primarily have not had point guards, right? But it gets, you know, we've seen offenses slow down with him, all of those things. Kevin Durant is too hurt to really be playing. Like, no matter, like, the nine turnovers, that seemed to be because nobody else is moving without the ball as much, you know, getting to places where he could help. But where LeBron went by him and did that reverse dunk, Durant couldn't move. And that's not because Kevin Durant isn't trying, right? He really, really clearly is trying hard to play when I don't know if he is able to. But I was stunned by the way that those dudes just didn't seem to be playing hard in that moment. And they're going to come home, but they're going to mess around and get swept. And that's a bad look for everybody.

Speaker 5:
[36:42] It's a bad look for everyone. It's not just Eme did this. The athletes on that team, you mean to tell me that the best option was a player who's coming, who didn't play in the first game, Gungar LeBron? Come on. You made a statement about Eme and his, the first thing that said, the guy's going to play hard for him. One of the most frustrating things in life is, as a coach, is when you realize that athlete may not be able to shoot. When he was attacking in transition, I'm talking about when you get these guys that can finish above the rim. But when it comes to a basic play, like a catch and shoot, or in order for them to be successful, someone has to dominate the ball, so the ball is not moving, which in essence allows the defense to be set. In this day and age, you want to create movement. You have to create movement, and in that movement, you want whoever has the ball to be a threat, and the team has to adjust to that. But if they don't have to adjust, they'll just pack the paint. That's where frustration truly sets in, in the head coach's perspective, because he's not working with pieces that can necessarily benefit what he wants to do.

Speaker 4:
[38:10] They lost to a team that played Luke Kennard for 42 minutes in a playoff game. They had 85 combined minutes between Luke Kennard and Rui Achimor. And that's not to say those guys aren't NBA players, right? It's not to say that they're bad, but they're not supposed to be playing 40 something minutes in an NBA playoff game, one that you win.

Speaker 5:
[38:32] And one of there was, there was no doubt, but, you know, they're having their way out there during the course of the game. Luke Kennard, you know, this is where I think about these moments where guys aren't necessarily given a lot of credit that don't play a lot during the regular season, or because someone, someone got hurt, he needed to step up. This is where you start the process of saying, hey, that's a professional NBA player. Because a professional NBA player just wants the opportunity. When his number is called, he's not going to come in and blame, oh, well, I didn't get reps, I didn't get this, I didn't get that. He's doing a tremendous job of staying ready, even though, now, practices in the NBA are not at a level of college and high school. So you have to figure out a way to get your win right. And for him to play all those minutes, Bomani, it just shows you that he was prepared for this moment.

Speaker 4:
[39:33] Yeah, I'd also make this point, too, that Get Off My Dickerson, the account that people say may or may not have been the Kevin Durant account. Get Off My Dickerson's criticisms of the Rockets appear to be quite prescient. Just about everything that account was saying is coming to bear in the playoffs. All of it.

Speaker 5:
[39:55] But, Bomani, are you really surprised with the way that they're handling the adversity from what we've seen this season from the Rockets?

Speaker 4:
[40:06] No, no, no. There was a lot once way back when about the Yankees. One Yankees team that said 25 players, 25 caps, right? Like that was the impression of that team. And that seems to be the case here. And especially with what I find interesting about that is it's with really young guys, right? And not just young guys, a lot of them lost together. And my buddy, Vinny, always makes the point because he covered the Pistons a lot when they were terrible. And he was like, winning teams, everybody's got somewhere to be when you're winning, right? You hide over here, you hide over here. But losing teams are normally the ones that are hanging out and playing PlayStation all the time. You know, like not even so much to say that the losing gives them a bond as much as it creates circumstances where they spend more time around each other. These dudes look like they look like they just met, like they shot for teams.

Speaker 5:
[40:54] Yeah. And even the welcoming of like Shepherd, you know, we we knew he wasn't a point guard when he first got out there, right? And this is a guy, he has a skill set that you can utilize. Sometimes it's about, hey, well, if I'm not getting this from this individual, let me let me let me do this with him just to give us something from and from a threat perspective of shooting, because I don't I don't I don't remember exactly what they shot from from the field in this game, but that's the biggest thing that stands out to me is that ball dominance and where is the outside shooting coming from?

Speaker 4:
[41:43] Right. Right. The Lakers, I mean, look, I'm sure there are lots of things to talk about. In the end, it is LeBron James, like, let me get the keys. Nobody has ever been able to get more out of other dudes. For him to be so excellent as he has been for his career, but then having that other superpower, nobody's winning playoff games with these dudes that way, but him, and he's doing it, and he's damn near my age.

Speaker 5:
[42:15] Great statement. I think about 07. He took a team to the finals. Oh, let's go, before we get to the finals, let's say that game in Detroit when he scored 25 straight. Yes. You had a bunch of role players out there. Not a bunch, but Booby Gibson. Booby Gibson was not a household name.

Speaker 4:
[42:37] Right.

Speaker 5:
[42:38] They had Eric Snow on that team.

Speaker 4:
[42:40] Touche. Jeff McKinnis is the backup point guard.

Speaker 5:
[42:44] Yeah, you had Big Z. You had Boozer.

Speaker 4:
[42:51] No, he had run that game on them by then. I think it was an old Ben Wallace that was on that team.

Speaker 5:
[42:58] No, Ben was on that team.

Speaker 4:
[43:01] I think he had left Detroit, but if he wasn't, it was that caliber.

Speaker 5:
[43:06] He was coming. Yeah. But you look at what he's been able to do, he's not out of practice. This is not out of character. This is what he's been accustomed to dealing with. Okay, this player is good when he's in this spot. Let's make sure I have him over there where he can succeed. That player is good in the pick and roll. I can set things up where Gaetan looks really good right now. I think that's the beauty of what LeBron has been able to do for his career is not just be the dominant person of just scoring, but really galvanizing a group to make sure that they can have looks, they get out in transition, all those things that are necessary to build victories within a group, and also to build them up. Because this is very different than when Luka is on the floor. Luka is going to have the ball quite a bit because he's special that way. But look at how they can make this change. And now LeBron has the ball, but he's dominating the ball to get others involved.

Speaker 4:
[44:22] Right. And by the way, it was not old Ben Wallace. He got there the next year, but Drew Gooden was big man on that team.

Speaker 5:
[44:31] I knew it was someone like him.

Speaker 4:
[44:32] The particulars honestly didn't matter at that point. It was some cats that was in the NBA, and they put them in calf suits, and LeBron made that happen. I want to switch up though to a series. We talked earlier this year, and you talked specifically about Yolkage and leadership, right? They're playing against Minnesota, and it is very clear that Minnesota hates their guts, right? That quote from JD. McDaniels about how we're going at all their poor defenders, all of every single player. Like he went too far, but year 11 Yolkage is looking like more of a defensive liability than before. But I wanted to talk about the leadership that I don't think gets enough credit, which is they keep giving Anthony Edwards all these guys that other people don't really feel like fucking with, right? You give Anthony Edwards, call Anthony Tows, then you switch him out for Julius Randall in a trade where I think both teams concluded that you couldn't win with that guy, and they switched them off to the other squad. Rudy Gobert, right? The least respected player that good in the history of anything. And whenever they play against Denver or just anybody else, they go, and it is clear that that guy by force of personality raises the level of all these other dudes, and they have a chance to win this series when the other team has the best player in the world.

Speaker 5:
[45:53] Also the dynamic playmaking skill of Ant. Yeah. You know, that's the part. Whenever you have that guy, we seen it with Jordan. I mean, Jordan had, no, he didn't have Concat. He had Cartwright. He had Cartwright for quite some time, and if anything, he learned to get out of his way on them driving lanes. Yes. But the beauty of Ant, I feel, is that that time off that he had with the knee issue, that time off allowed him to rejuvenate, it allowed his body to rest and heal a little bit, and he was already an individual that we're well aware of in his work ethic and figuring out other ways to score the basketball. It takes me back to the LA Clipper game when he doesn't make the pass, and then coach is saying, swing it, swing it, and he ends up taking the shot with two guys on him, and he makes it, and this is what I do. I think media made more of that what coach is saying, because he's going to ask someone during the game to make that next pass. So this is only him holding Ant accountable to the same standards of everyone else. Now, Ant is special. So that's why you didn't see the coach going back and forth with him, because that is what they want from him. But now that he's had this time to heal, this time to rest up and get better physically, a lot of times we like to cancel out who cancels out someone. Well, Rudy Gobert cancels out somebody from that team. Jamal Murray cancels out someone from that team. But now once you start doing that, who cancels out Ant? Right. There's not even someone that you can necessarily say, okay, he gives him a hard time scoring. That's the part when a player understands that you guys can try whatever you want, but you won't stop us. That's when you in trouble. And Rudy, as much as we see the meme of him being choked by Draymond, he's effective there, and Ant appreciates him because of what he does.

Speaker 4:
[48:34] What I love about Edwards is he looks at a doula. You remember that year where they had like the pickup draft for the All-Star game and LeBron, and I can't remember who was the other guy where nobody wanted to take Rudy, and they just clowning him basically on national television. And at every turn, Anthony Edwards is like, no, man, you cool with me. We need you, dawg, and Rudy, I don't know if he'll ever admit it out loud. You can tell he needs that. You know what I mean? Like you can tell, because he's always, nobody want to give me the ball, right? Like all that sort of stuff. And it's kind of like, man, just give him the ball right there.

Speaker 1:
[49:04] Yeah, yeah, cool, man, give him the ball.

Speaker 4:
[49:05] I'll talk to him after, man. We'd be fine, we'd be fine.

Speaker 5:
[49:08] Hey, but that's what the greats do. The greats understand that kind of stuff. There were times Tim could have shot the ball, but he passed it to me because he knew it was a higher percentage shot. I mean, he knew that I needed a touch. Yeah. But no, in all seriousness, that is the beauty of leadership as well. Recognizing what someone does and what they do well for you. If Ant was on top of Rudy Gobert that way as far as being negative, then they wouldn't be able to utilize his skill set. And at the end of the day, say what you want, he still controls that paint and he's not afraid to get dunked on. He is going to battle. And unlike some of the other French guys that played in this game, he got a little hard.

Speaker 4:
[50:01] That was his best yogic performance ever because yogic used to eat his ass up. That fourth quarter, he played better against yogic than I think I've ever seen him play against yogic.

Speaker 5:
[50:11] And it makes you wonder too, you know, the makeup now of, it's just so interesting, Bomani, when a certain coach leaves, when there's a new coach or new ownership, things change because that voice is gone. They won an NBA championship. Now, I get it. This coach was on the staff then, but it wasn't about what he was doing. It was what the head coach was doing. Now, that he's gone and he's a UNC, now, it's a different voice. It's a different swag. Every one time I was talking with him and I said something, and he went straight to accountability. He's like, Bruce, I don't want to talk to agents because one of their players got in their feelings because I looked at them funny at practice. He said, but when you keep it straight, it becomes a lot easier for that player not to want to pick up the phone and more or less have a conversation. Yeah.

Speaker 4:
[51:20] I want to get one last thing with you before we get out of here. Did you have CJ McCollum be in the Madison Square Garden villain on your bingo card? You tell me if I'm wrong, but it looks very clear to me and it would not surprise me. CJ McCollum is like, explain to me why Jalen Brunson is better than me. Tell me what the difference is between me and Jalen Brunson. Because one thing I know is Jalen Brunson can't guard me. He said that basically after the game. They're like, are you targeting him? What do you think? I'm like, no, hey, CJ, I know you had it in the game like that big dog.

Speaker 5:
[51:56] Really? Yeah. Bomani, CJ has been special with that rock a long time, man. He just happened to hit a growth spurt, I believe, late high school and then at Lehigh. Yeah. So his ability to get to spots on the floor, his brother played overseas, so his brother would come back home and they would get to work. They would get to work and he's always had that. What became an issue was, okay, who's going to be the person to start this and finish the game between him and Dane Time, Damon Lillard, when they were in Portland again. It was a great one-two punch, but then CJ wanted his own and that's when he departed for New Orleans. But this is not anything that I'm surprised or shocked by. It's, you got to have someone that's creative in an elite level because he's an elite scorer. Before, who was a player in the playoffs years past for against the Knicks that you would have worried about when it came to Jalen Brunson guarding them? Halliburton really, he wasn't necessarily, I don't remember that matchup so much, but it was someone else that was guarding Halliburton. So it took the onus off of that. Now, it's not to say that Jalen can slide his feet, but he hadn't had the chance to guard someone quite like CJ in the past. Because remember, Jalen went to Villanova. They play defense at Villanova. So it's there. I'm just saying, it's never been isolated like that, like a searching, like, oh, no, here you go. Here's the one we want. And he went to work when he had him. He got busy, got downhill real quick.

Speaker 4:
[54:00] There's my man, Bruce Bowen. Sad Antonio. You know what I'm saying? Jet-light car. Okay. He got poses. All right. I see you. You ready? You ready for your close up? That's what's up. I feel you. West Fresno. See, I got, you notice I got West Fresno right this time.

Speaker 5:
[54:14] Yeah. Look, hey, Bomani, you've wronged me so many times. I just, you know, I want to keep it going. I want to keep this relationship the right way. Because, you know, I know a lot of people that enjoy us getting together the way we do. So I'm just trying to keep that going and not allowing something as as as as tacky as, you know, he didn't say West Fresno. He didn't say it right, you know.

Speaker 4:
[54:44] We're good, baby. My brother, I appreciate you back.

Speaker 5:
[54:47] Same here, baby. You enjoy this, this playoffs. And lastly, last thing I'm going to say is that it's the right time.

Speaker 4:
[54:56] See, I see. There we go, man. We'll talk to you again soon. And ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on The Right Time. We do this four days a week. Ryan Brumley had an everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line 3 2 3 5 9 6 7 7 6 7. Remember, follow The Right Time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.

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